Truth or Dare
by littlespider
Summary: A game of Truth or Dare with the new intern changes everything for Eli Loker. Rated for implied sexiness Loker/OC
1. Natural

I got tired of Torres/Loker fics ('cause I really can't stand her) and decided to write something a little bit different.

Disclaimer: Lie to Me is only mine in my dreams...

A game of Truth or Dare with the new intern changes everything for Eli Loker.

* * *

"Hey, Dad?"

Dr. Cal Lightman looked up from the newspaper he was reading. "Yeah, love?"

His daughter, Emily, sat down in the chair opposite his with a sigh. "People like Torres… what do you call 'em?"

"Naturals." Cal looked at his daughter curiously. She didn't normally show interest in his work. "Why do you ask?"

Emily's brow furrowed a little, like she was thinking hard about something. "There's this girl at school… Riley Yung. Well, actually she just graduated. She works at the coffee shop on the corner. And I was just thinking about it… I think she's a Natural."

Cal couldn't help but chuckle. "Really? And since when are you the authority on Naturals?"

"Well, for one, I've lived around you my whole life!" Emily laughed, rolling her eyes. "Seriously, Dad, I think you should talk to her."

Cal sighed in defeat. Emily was giving him her puppy eyes, and he knew it was useless to fight. "You know her well?"

Emily shrugged. "Yeah. We took psychology together, and she was on yearbook with me."

"Okay, then," Cal said, picking the newspaper back up. "Invite her over for dinner, and I'll talk to her."

"What? Dad, you don't cook."

"Don't worry about. Just invite her."

***

On his way out of his office, Cal paused, and turned to look at Gillian. "Oy, Foster. You got plans tonight?"

Gillian laughed. Only if going home to an empty apartment counted. "No, why?"

"I want you to come to my house for dinner. I'm making spaghetti and meatballs. Emily has a friend coming over."

Gillian looked at him suspiciously. "That's it? Nothing work oriented at all?"

"All right," Cal admitted. "She thinks this girl is a Natural, and I'm checking it out to appease her. But incase this turns out to be a let down, I'd love to have someone there for stimulating conversation."

"Glad to know that stimulating conversation is all you get from this friendship," Gillian laughed. "And yes, I'd love to come."

***

Dinner went fairly well. Riley was a young looking girl of 18, with shoulder length black hair and olive skin. They made light conversation ranging from school to movies. As planned, Cal dropped many white lies, and also as planned, neither Emily or Gillian said anything about them. Riley made no visible signs that she noticed.

But when Emily when to start washing dishes, she decided to speak up. "Dr. Lightman, Emily's told me about what you do. So why was everything you just told me a lie?"

"Ah, see, she is good," Cal said lightly, glancing over at Gillian, who nodded in agreement. "You see, Em wanted me to talk to you. She thought you noticed when people were lying to you."

"And she was right." Gillian added. "That's quite a skill, Riley. We'd love it if you came and interned with us."

Riley sighed. "Look, I don't want to sound ungrateful because that is an amazing opportunity. I just… I can't do unpaid work."

"Why? Mum and Dad not paying for college?" Cal asked. Gillian gave him a frown.

"Actually, no." Riley said, clearing her throat. "My mom died when I was five, never knew my dad. I got booted out of the foster care group home four months ago when I turned 18. I'm barely making enough to pay for rent and food." She sighed. "Not to mention putting some of it into savings. I do plan on going to college one of these days."

The two partners were silent for a moment, taking it all in. Then Gillian spoke. "Tell you what. We've got an associate who's taking a leave of absence, and we really could use the help. I'm sure we can work out a paid internship."

"How much you getting now?" Cal inquired, ever the blunt one.

"About 8 an hour, plus tips," Riley said with a grimace.

Cal slapped his leg. "Well, I can assure you we can offer you more than that. What do you say?"

Riley opened her mouth, but was unable to come up with the words. Which was fine, because her face said it all.

* * *

So? What'd you think? All the other chapters are already written... I just need the motivation to post them. So review? :)


	2. Expressions

Special thanks to Cal and Gillian-Friends4Life, CallianLuv, ActressQueen11, and Silla123 for reviewing! Hopefully this chapter answers your questions. Though I did want to clarify something, ActreesQueen11.

I could never replace Loker. Torres, yes, Eli, no.

Disclaimer: Still not mine.

* * *

"Ah, Riley," Gillian said with a smile as the girl walked into Lightman's office. The psychologist laughed as she looked around, obviously impressed. "Welcome to the Lightman Group."

"Thanks," Riley said, giving what Cal could see was a genuine smile. He filed the image away in his mind for future use. "So, what exactly will I be doing?"

She was straightforward; he liked that. "Well, since you're a Natural, you already have a basic grasp of the different emotions. But you need to spend a little time learning the exact details of the science before-"

Cal was interrupted by a knock on his door. "You wanted to see me?" Loker asked, sticking his head inside the door.

"Yeah, come in." Cal waved him in before turning back to Riley to notice she was studying Loker with barely contained curiosity and something like attraction. Cal had noticed that a lot of younger women looked at his researcher that way. He just didn't understand it.

"Sexual arousal." Loker stated bluntly, as usual.

Now Riley looked confused, one delicate eyebrow arching slightly. Cal gave a small grin of amusement; this girl's expressions were fabulous. "Excuse me?"

"Just then, the look you gave me just then was sexual arousal. Eli Loker," he said, offering his hand. Riley shook it, though not before glancing at Cal and Gillian first. Once they had parted again, Eli gave her his famous lopsided grin. "Don't worry. If you'd been trained to recognize it, you'd be able to tell by the fact that my pupils are dilated that I also feel a sense of sexual arousal around you."

Cal gave him an incredulous look. "Do you make all of your first impressions that way?"

He was answered with a look that was only describable as pure Eli Loker.

Gillian cleared her throat, bringing everyone's attention back to the previous conversation. "Riley, Eli will be teaching you everything you don't already know intuitively. Once you're deemed ready, you'll be helping either Dr. Lightman or myself with consultation cases."

As soon as they were alone in the office, Gillian turned to give Cal a frown. "What was that about?"

"What was what about?"

"When Torres was new you gave her the 'don't fear the Loker' speech. Why didn't you give it to Riley?" Gillian asked, perching on the edge of the desk.

"She's a bright girl, she'll catch on soon enough," Cal said, turning to open his email. "Besides, did you see her face? She's got lovely expressions. Looks like it will be lively around here after all." He chuckled, missing the look of pure confusion the psychologist sent his way.

***

Loker brought Riley to the media room, and glanced at her as he was pulling up the microexpression exercise on the big screen. "I scared you, didn't I?"

Riley shook her head, but Eli didn't miss the slight widening of her eyes. "No, you didn't."

"Don't try and lie," he said, swiveling in his chair to face her. "You've got a very readable face. For instance, when I asked you if I scared you, you're eyes widened; you were surprised I picked up on it. It'll be weird for a while," he added, "being the one read and not the one reading."

Silence. Then, "How do you deal with it? Always getting caught, I mean?"

"I don't lie." Again, the boyish grin.

"Ever?"

"Nope. I call it Radical Honesty. You should try it some time," Eli brought up the first microexpression, and turned to watch Riley as she worked on the exercise. She probably didn't know that he could see that she was considering it.

***

Riley headed down the hallway inside the Lightman group building. It was the end of her first week. She was immensely glad she took the offer; not only was the pay better than making coffee, but the people were interesting, too. Especially Loker. His whole Radical Honesty thing… well, right now, it sounded like a pretty good idea. Riley had learned that she couldn't even tell a half truth without getting caught.

Stopping just outside Lightman's office, she stuck her head it and saw Cal was talking to Loker. "See ya, Boss, Loker. Have a nice weekend."

She paused, then decided to heck with it. "By the way, the collage…" she gestured to the pictures of Cal on the walls. "It's creepy. Kind of stalkerish."

Both men laughed. "Thanks," Cal said.

Riley gave him a cheeky smile. "No problem, Boss. Night."

As the girl's footsteps got farther away, Cal gave Loker a piercing look. "Did you tell her to say that?"

"Nope." Eli looked smug, and he knew it. "I did tell her about Radical Honesty, and I guess she decided to give it a try."

Cal groaned just as Gillian entered the room. "What's going on?" she asked the researcher standing in front of the desk.

"I've managed to convert Riley to Radical Honesty," he said proudly.

Gillian gave him an amused glance. "This'll be interesting. How's she doing on everything else?"

"Good," Lightman answered, flipping through the file Loker had handed him. "Looks like she did better on the vocal analysis than Torres did…"

Loker nodded. "Yeah. She's pretty good with the mircroexpressions, too, but… she does have a hard time identifying expressions of love, trust, affection…"

Foster frowned. "Well, I guess that makes sense. She was a foster child. I've been looking through her file, and apparently no family kept her for longer than two years. I can't imagine she's seen a lot of love or trust." Gillian sighed tiredly. "Notice a pattern?"

Cal nodded, thinking. "Torres had an abusive father, Riley was an unwanted foster child… Do Naturals develop their skills through traumatic childhoods?"

"Well, don't ask me," Loker said, retreating out the door before he could get pulled into what he was sure would be a long conversation. "Night guys."

* * *

Liked it? Review and I'll post the next chapter. :)


	3. Elevator Talk

This chapter was brought to you by the reviews of Silla123, stars-go-blue, and hey_u_rock_my_sox. Be thankful!

I'd also like to thank "Thunder" by the amazing band Boys Like Girls and Lady Invisible's fic "Mr Truth" for inspiring this chapter.

Don't own anything. Now let's get to it! :)

* * *

Eli Loker ran through the rain from his car to the building. Once inside, he headed toward the elevators. Riley Yung was already inside one, and held the door for him.

"Thanks," Loker said, shaking out his dark curls and sending droplets of water everywhere. "How was your weekend?"

Riley'd been working with the Group for about a month now, and Eli felt that they had a legitimate friendship. Unlike Torres, who seemed to tolerate him, Riley was honestly interested in what he had to say, and came to him for advice before going to Foster or Lightman about anything. She'd even picked up his habit of Radical Honesty, though she had more of a filter than he ever would. They usually got lunch together, though they didn't get assigned to the same case often. Even though there was a significant age difference between the two (eight years), Eli often felt he connected with Riley better than he had any woman his own age.

So when a muscle in her jaw twitched, Eli knew something was bothering her. "I hate storms. My entire neighborhood's electricity has been down since Saturday night. And the dry cleaner can't find my work clothes," she almost growled, gesturing to her dark skinny jeans, loose purple v-necked tee, and grey button up sweater. She completed the thrown together look with her black coat, black leather discount boots, and a bright orange scarf.

And Loker thought she'd never looked better. "You look great to me."

She met his honesty point for point. "I always look great to you."

He had to admit it, she was right. But before he could say anything, the elevator jerked to a stop. Both occupants stumbled, and Eli's arm found its way around Riley's waist to keep her standing. "Thanks," she mumbled straightening after the initial shock. "What happened?"

As if to answer her question, the lights inside the elevator flickered, then went out completely. "It looks like you brought the blackout to work with you. Nice job, Yung. Now we're stuck." Riley stuck her tongue out at him, and received a chuckle as he pulled out his cell phone. "Lightman? Yeah, it's Loker. Did the-? Yeah. Riley and I are stuck in the elevator. Hello? We're stuck in the-"

Loker glared at his phone as the call was dropped. "And my service just crapped out. Awesome."

Riley sighed and sat down on the floor, leaning up against the floor. "I guess we'll be in here for a while."

"Yeah," Loker sighed, sitting down and leaning against the opposite wall. Suddenly, an idea came to him. "Hey, you wanna play truth?"

"Truth?"

"Yeah, it's like truth or dare, minus the dares." He wasn't sure if she could see his grin in the complete darkness, but he couldn't help himself. "It's fun."

There was an answering sigh. "Sure. It's gotta be better than just sitting here."

***

At first the questions were just general. Favorite colors, favorite movies, favorite foods... But after about an hour, and an intense giggling fit from Riley when Loker admitted he preferred chick flicks to sports, the questions got more serious.

"Did you like your childhood?" Loker asked, laying on his back and staring at what he assumed was the ceiling.

"Yeah. I loved school. I never had a whole bunch of friends, but I loved all my teachers. I don't think I ever had a bad one."

"Lucky," Loker laughed. "But what about life at home?"

There was a slight pause. "What home? I lived with a whole bunch of people, in a whole bunch of places, but I don't think I ever really had a home. …I guess it was okay. Most of the families I was with were just doing it for the check every month. They didn't really care how I was doing as long as the money came. And I'd lived with enough of them to see right through their phony smiles."

Loker thought about this for a moment. "Sorry," he said softly. He knew she knew he meant it.

"Don't worry about it. So, how about you?"

"At school, I was always the odd one out. Not quite a nerd, but definitely not a jock… never really sure who to hang out with. I had one good friend, though, all the way through high school. At home," he sighed, "at home it was just me and my mom. My dad split when I was three, so I never really knew him. But I still missed him."

"I'm sorry."

***

Another hour passed, and the lights didn't come back on. Riley shifted positions, and groaned. "God, my butt hurts."

"Yeah, your butt is hot," Loker mumbled sleepily.

"No, Loker, hurts. It hurts."

"Oh."

There was a sound of shuffling around, and Loker wondered vaguely what Riley was doing. Then bone stuck against bone, and stars danced in front of his now open eyes. "Ow!"

If he could've seen her, he would've noticed her eyes widened guiltily, and she rubbed at her own head. "Sorry, Loker. I was just trying to lie down."

"Yeah, well, that was my head, not the floor," Loker grumped.

Carefully, lowering herself onto her elbows, Riley moved toward the sound of Loker's voice. "Do you want me to kiss it and make it better?"

Before he could answer, Loker felt Riley's cool lips pressed against his bruised forehead. He relished in the feel of her hands placed against his temples, gently holding him in place. Her hair, soft as silk, fell forward and brushed against his face; it smelled like oranges. He felt a twinge of disappointment when she drew back.

"Hey, Loker… Truth or dare?" she asked suddenly.

"Uh, I thought we were playing Truth."

She snorted softly. "Well, now we're not. Truth or dare?"

He paused. "Dare."

He felt her lean forward again, felt her breath as it played on his face. "Kiss me," she whispered.

Almost as though he could actually see her, Loker brought his hand up to cup her jaw, and, without moving himself, expertly maneuvered her so that there lips were mere inches apart. Then he closed that distance instantly, and it resulted in no innocent kiss. There was need, desire, behind it. Riley's lips melted under his, and she moaned softly, opening just enough for his tongue to penetrate and taste her mouth. She tasted like mint and something else, something that Loker wasn't sure could be described with words. He couldn't help but run his other hand through her hair, wanting to be closer to her.

Then the two broke apart with a start as the lights blinked back on and the elevator jerked back into movement. The two got the their feet hurriedly as they arrived at the fifth floor, and moved to gather their stuff. Their coats and bags had been discarded on the floor along with Riley's scarf. They'd just finished collecting themselves when the door opened to reveal Cal and Gillian.

The psychologist looked concerned. "Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah," Loker nodded. "I don't really feel like taking another elevator today, but yeah, we're fine."

Lightman studied them carefully, and both Loker and Riley knew he could see it. Knew their cheeks were slightly flushed, and, although their sweat could be explained by two and a half hours in a closed elevator, their red, swollen lips couldn't. But to be honest, they didn't really care.

"You're sure?" Cal asked, hoping to get a confession from one of the Radicals right here in the waiting room.

This time, it was Riley who answered. "Yeah, why wouldn't we be? You worry too much, Boss."

Without further comment, the two stalked off, leaving a very frustrated social scientist and a confused psychologist standing alone.

* * *

Be good and review, and I'll post the last little bit!!


	4. Dare

Here's the last chapter, people! Thanks to all my readers, especially Silla123, stars-go-blue, bookworm2011, TwilightRocks, and xXMayDayXx for reviewing. :)

Disclaimer: Nothing except Riley is mine. :(

* * *

It was about ten o'clock that night when there was a knock on Riley's door. Switching the television off, she padded to the door and looked through the peek hole. When she saw who it was, she frowned and open the door.

"Loker? What are you doing here?"

Sure enough, Eli Loker was standing at her door, looking even more disheveled than usual. He was still wearing the clothes he'd worn to work, though the collared shirt had been unbuttoned further, to reveal a well shaped chest, covered lightly with hair. And the curly brown mop on his head was covered in a fine sheen of rain.

"I can't stop thinking about our kiss," Loker blurted. "It was amazing, and I haven't felt anything like that in a while. Because I haven't been with someone amazing in a long time, and you're amazing."

And he meant it, even right now as she stood in the doorway of her apartment in a large grey t-shirt and black boy short underwear, her hair tousled and a general look of tired amusement on her face. She was amazing.

The Radically Honest part of his brain continued to move his mouth. "And I'd like us to be more. I really would. But you… you must have other guys who… and then there's the age difference… and you haven't flashed sexual arousal since the day we met."

Now she laughed. "What? You're worried because I don't get sexually aroused every time I'm around you?"

Loker could only nod in complete sincerity. "Logically speaking, everything is against you and I. But I-"

"Loker, shut up." With that declaration, Riley stepped forward and pulled the researcher down for a passionate kiss, effectively stifling all further comments. She put everything she could into that kiss, and Eli felt it, wanted it just for himself. Finally, they broke apart, breathless. "How's that for sexual arousal?" she asked cheekily.

Eli actually took the time to look at her, and he could see it all over her face. Pupils dilated, cheeks flushed, swollen lips open, as though begging for more. Yes, he could read her like an open book; a very hot, sensual book.

"Hey, Loker," she said, giving a coy smile and leaning against the door frame. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare," he growled, leaning down for another kiss. His hands went to her waist and he expertly moved them into the apartment, kicking the door shut behind him.


End file.
